


Carina

by donttalktothewolf



Series: Carina [1]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: F/M, murder baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27841762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donttalktothewolf/pseuds/donttalktothewolf
Summary: Behold the stars.
Relationships: Bedelia Du Maurier/Hannibal Lecter
Series: Carina [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074605
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	Carina

**Author's Note:**

> \- I had this idea and I thought… why not?! lol  
> \- It happens somewhere after the season three finale, I guess?!

_“ Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.”_  
The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri, Inferno - Canto XXXIV  
Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

The silence woke her. An unperturbed stillness in the night that embraced her sleep like a cloth. And almost asphyxiated her dreams in its blankness. 

Her wake was sudden, a tense jerk of her body as she gasped for air. Her eyes springing open to a room full of darkness. Her hand seeking the warmth of a body and grasping instead the empty coldness of a sheet.

Before she could stop herself she was once again trapped in those years. Waking in the middle of the night. Buried in heavy silence with a dull ache in her chest, only a glass of wine and the stars to keep her company.

 _Long years that were long gone_ , she reminded herself as she got up searching for her robe. The silk sliding cool and smooth against her heated skin. In the last years, she had grown accustomed to noises in the night. A steady breathing warming her skin. Calm heartbeats against her fingertips. And recently the impatient cries of a hungry baby. 

At some point, silence had grown too quiet, its emptiness unbearable. And sounds had become life.

But tonight there was nothing and she felt it almost physically. The absence. Like the sensation of a phantom limb. Even without a clock, she knew the 3 a.m. feeding was long gone, and she wondered why she hadn’t heard the baby cry. Their _daughter_ cry.

Being a mother had started with forced biochemical reactions. Her body being conditioned by doses of hormones to nurture weakness. An evolution mechanism to guarantee the survival of the species. She knew it. But that didn’t prevent love to sprout like parasitic haustoria. Its roots growing deep inside her heart, her life not solely her own.

She found them in the living room. Bathed in silver moonlight. The baby’s head resting on his bare chest, their profile pristine against the night sky. Coming from the sea, a breeze agitated the white curtains, swirling the thin fabric around the open doors. It reminded her of ghosts.

A desire to touch them burned bright like incandescent iron. But she refused to disturb their peace, the feelings in her chest almost too great to share. Observing was still how she felt more comfortable about them. Participation was a change time would bring, like waves eroding the walls of castles in the sand. Slow but constant. But tonight, Bedelia was an observer.

Observing antithesis, a teacup coming together for the first time.

Hannibal pointed something in the sky, his lips brushing the top of the baby head while he sniffed her hair. He was smelling baby powder, diaper cream, and lavender oil. The smell of _love_. Smiling, he brought her little star-shaped hands to his lips, planting delicate kisses on her fingertips.

“Almost one hundred years ago, Argo was considered obsolete and split into three small constellations. Vela, Puppis and that is you, _Carina_.” Hannibal said, using their daughter’s chubby index to point somewhere in the horizon. “The constellation holding the brightest star in the meridional sky. _Alpha Carinae_. If you ever find yourself lost, you can trust her to lead you south, and even in the dark, you’ll always find home.”

***

**Author's Note:**

> \- I know nothing of astronomy, sadly.  
> \- I don’t know why, but shirtless Hannibal holding a baby in the middle of the night do stupid things to my brain. So I had to write this. Ugh! I apologize for my self-indulgence. :)


End file.
